In certain shots outside the city, we can see that Honnouji actually does get covered by a reddish fog at times, so it might be a clue to something.

Isn't Honnouji surrounded by water? That could be explainable by that and the red fog could be the refraction of the sun.

Spiral

Is there a reason that the city is more or less designed like a spiral?

As demonstrated by the set-up of the "Naturals Election", Satsuki tends to force her Social Darwinism views on the student body in blatantly literal ways. More than likely she insisted on arranging the residential districts in a literal pyramid of rising living standards as a constant, larger-than-life reminder to the student body that the Goku Uniform centered power-pyramid at school doesn't stop being effective outside of school.

In episode 11, we see the other scissor half. But... it's purple in 11. Wasn't it supposed to be blue?

Probably as a result of the lighting at the time. Ryuko only took a glance at it from a distance and there was a huge fire right beside her at the time, so while it looked like blue in the light, it was actually purple. That, or it was painted over.

From a Doylist perspective, that seems like rather pointless misdirection. But I'm guessing it's too early to call foul, given how little we still know.

From a Watsonian perspective, it might be because the red light from the sunset was making it seem purple.

It also has a different shaped hilt. I mean if it was the other half wouldn't it be the same shape?

Scissors don't work that way - the round hilt is because it's for the figurative thumb, while the elongated hilt of Ryuko's sword is for the figurative index and middle fingers.

Forgot about that I must be too used to scissors that have both elongated.

Stripping

Anyone else notice that when someone in a goku uniform forcibly shredded off of them by Ryuko, they're left naked, but when Mako willingly throws off her two-star uniform to the sky for Ryuko to destroy, she was in her underwear? Do you think that was intentional on the writers' part, like maybe those who willingly give up their uniform get to maintain some of their modesty or something?

I'm not seeing a question here (at least not one you didn't answer for yourself in the same post.) I guess it's possible to interpret that as symbolic (Graceful Loser that gives up the uniform preserves some dignity as opposed to tenacious antagonists that must be completely broken down before they accept defeat like you said) though a more concrete and straightforward reason could be that, y'know, Ryuko's Finishing Move consists of completely cutting the clothes off someone's body, and she just doesn't have the dexterity to spare their undergarments while shredding their outer outfits. It's really only thanks to cartoon physics that she doesn't bisect the wearer themselves whenever she uses Decapitation Mode.

Who says they wear underwear, for all we know that interferes with the power up and Mako just didn't know that.

Fight Club uniform

Why did the Fight Club's two star uniform look like a no star uniform?

Because it was designed as a "delinquent" uniform, adding all these images of power on top of the regular school clothing, essentially a "dangerous look" just plastered on the Uniform.

Pretty much that. Though it's not actually a "delinquent" uniform, but rather one of a standard male Japanese cheerleader, someone often associated with fighting and thus a good fit for the leader of a fight-related club.

Artillery

How in the hell does the school not use actual artillery pieces for the 1812 overture?

Given how surprised Sanageyama was at seeing that Osaka residents had access to actual guns, it's probable that gunpowder weaponry has just been phased out among the general population. It's a common enough trope in anime set in the future that use as a central plot element the introduction of some sort of new-tech weapon system, which Goku Uniforms have been hinted to be multiple times.

Actually, it's Japan, guns are extremely controlled in Japan. Though, it's no wonder that the people of Osaka own actual guns, since it's one of the most corrupt places in Japan. It's not out of the question for them to smuggle illegal weaponry into the country, Kobe for instance had a tank smuggled in with help from the Russian Mafia. Kill la Kill's universe, by the way, isn't actually that far off into the future, given that Ragyo is dressed as a typical 90's business woman in the flashbacks.

Star versus higher stars

In the opening of the very first episode, it's established that a one star uniform isn't even a threat to a 3 star uniform. so how is it that the Elite Four's 3 star uniform's are such a challenge for what is essentially a 10 star uniform?

Possibly the power increase from a greater concentration of Life Fibers starts to plateau after 30%. A more likely explanation is simply that the Elite Four have great personal power that lets them stand equal to the might of Kamui users even with weaker equipment. I point to Inumuta as the exception that proves the rule: he's the only one of Satsuki's minions that didn't earn a place of honor through a feat of strength or a display of resolve, and he was a worse failure in a fight against Ryuko than some Two-Star club presidents.

Elite Four's uniforms are custom-made to match their abilities and Elites are well-trained in their use. It's heavily hinted Kamui's raw power potential is FAR in excess of three-star uniforms, but Ryuko is just learning how to use it. When fighting Elite Four, Ryuko was actually picking up pace even while her opponents got stronger.

The thief in episode 1 wasn't a threat to Gamagoori because the thief was a tiny out-of-shape kid and Gamagoori is a gigantic wall of muscle. Personal power/skill is probably a bigger factor than Life Fiber count.

The elite four are all highly trained, Ryuko is not. She's just running on hate and anger and not fully synchronized with Senketsu. Once she gets the benefit of Satsuki's Stealth MentorTraining from Hell and lets go of her anger she and Senketsu do become fully synchronized and together they even outclass Nui.

Rescuing Takarada

In Episode 15, why did Mikisugi order the Nudist Beach troops to rescue Takarada as well?

Because Takarada was their ally most likely. His mech bore a very strong resemblance to the mini-mecha used by Nudist Beach and their main base Was under Osaka. When Satsuki points out that Takarada was not her main target he realizes that she was gunning for Nudist Beach. He had to know about the organization considering that they operated out of his hometown. It is very probable that Nudist Beach had the financial backing of Takarada Conglomerate against the Kiryuin one and in exchange they shared their anti-uniforn technology.

Wasn't it outright stated that the Takarada's were financially backing the Nudist? Takarada said something along the lines of sinking a vast portion of his family's wealth into creating the Naked Sun.

Anyone who opposes the Kiryuins is a potential ally, for as long as that someone does not view them as enemies. Regardless of whether or not they are allies, that much should be reason enough.

Recruiting Gamagoori and Inumuta

Does anyone know why the recruitment of Gamagoori and Inumuta don't add up? Both are supposed to happen at more or less the same time, five years prior to the series' start. However Satsuki's appearance varies greatly in both flashbacks. In Gamagoori's she has short hair and is smaller, while in Inumuta's she has her hair already grown out and she looks like in Sanageyama's flashback which happened only three years ago. It's also not the mistake in translation, the numeric kanji shown in the flashbacks are all correctly translated. Is it Trigger's mistake, one of the characters have memory problems or what?

Gamagoori is 20, Inumuta is a third year (so about 18), their flashbacks occurred five and three years ago respectively, which is why Satsuki's appearance changed.

That's the problem, both happened 5 years ago. The symbol for number of years is the same in both. [1][2]

Then we have to assume that it's either a case of Writers Cannot Do Math, or that Inumuta really is around the same age as Gamagoori.

It's possible that Inumuta, being the genius he is, skipped a few classes and got to third grade when he normally would be in, say, first grade. Of course this would mean that he's either already graduated in the present or set back to a year more appropriate for his age when he enrolled in Honnouji.

It's a mistake on Trigger's part. While the broadcast version stated five years, the corrected home video version fixed it, changing the symbol for number of years to three instead of five. As such, the broadcast version released on Crunchyroll says "Five Years Ago" while official American home video release has the corrected version, as seen here.◊

Anti-life fibers versus hybrids

If Ryuko is actually the daughter of Ragyo Kiryuin that was infused with life fibers near birth (extra spoiler warning: this is a HUGE spoiler), then why aren't Tsumugu Kinagase's sewing needle bullets a serious risk to her health?

They don't penetrate deep enough? From what we have seen they penetrate only a bit into the skin, not deep enough to reach any vital organs. If they did they would be as dangerous to other people. Tsumugu did warn Ryuko that at point blank range they may be lethal, meaning that they would penetrate deep enough to damage her organs.

Super regenerative powers. Ragyo survived having her head cut off save for a single thread. It's likely that his bullets just don't have the power to overcome her natural defenses. Also, she IS half human, and there's nothing which shows Ryuko or Ragyo are so infused with life fibers that their bodies have become dependent on them to survive.

Sneaking in cameras

One of the Video Feeds Mikisugi used in episode 17 shows the sight from the top of Satsuki's tower in Honnouji with Satsuki standing a bit below it. How exactly did Mikisugi even manage to sneak all the way up there and install the camera?

Mikisugi probably just hacked into already existing security cameras.

Well, it depends on whether your problem was with the position of the camera, or with the fact that he somehow "sneaked" up there to install it. In the former case there's nothing to say (unless, as proposed above, he just hacked into an existing security camera), but in the latter case it's simple as Satsuki did know he was a spy but let him do it and let him think he succeeded to do it without being noticed as she meant to test them and thus showed a bit of leniency.

Kinue

So in episode 17, it's revealed that Kinue is Tsumugu's sister. Since Tsumugu could hear Senketsu and Senketsu is linked to Ryuko's genes, the obvious implication is Kinue is Ryuko's mother. So what does this mean in light of The Reveal in episode 18?

In light of this reveal, it means that it was something different. Maybe a Kiai attack from Senketsu or something ... that's how I always imagined it to be, that only Ryuko could hear it and see it act normally but the sheer will with which Senketsu wanted to protect Ryuko then caused it to be able to send a message to someone else.

Given what's been seen a few times in episodes 19-20 as far as "people understanding Senketsu", it seems unlikely that Tsumugu could literally understand Senketsu speaking. However, it's been show by several other characters that they can understand Senketsu's feelings or intent, if not his literal verbiage. So, in his mind, Tsumugu could tell what Senketsu was "saying" to him via Killing Intent or whatever, but probably couldn't literally hear it with his ears.

Alternatively, if I remember correctly, Kinue was killed during the process of creating Senketsu. I donít know if this is outright stated (or debunked) in the anime or not, but what if the Kamui that absorbed her went on to become (part of) Senketsu? In that case, it could have been Senketsuís will to protect Ryuko combined with the blood bond between Tsumugu and Kinue, who was still part of Senketsu in some way, that made it possible for Tsumugu to hear him.

Reattaching pieces cut by the Rending Scissors

A bit of Fridge Logic, but how was Senketsu, who is made from 100% life fibers, able to reattach his pieces back if he was cut by the other half of the Rending Scissors, a weapon explicitly stated to stop life fiber activity by killing life fibers? In the same vein, How is Ragyo able to reattach her hand after Ryuko cut it off, if the cause of her regeneration abilities were life fibers.

Remember that Life Fibers are parasitic and need a human host to reach their full potential. Ragyo is bonded to Life Fibers inside of herself, rendering her and them with an extremely strong union. As for Senketsu, well, Aikuro could still have been right when he said that he was made of synthetic Fibers mixed with Ryuuko's DNA and that could be what makes him so much more durable by himself than pure COVERS outfits.

That still does not hide the fact that he was cut by a blade that kills life fibers, unlike things that can only sever life fibers like Bakuzan or the blades Tsumugu use. He should be at least, very heavily damaged, to the point that they actually have to sew him back together with actual life fibers, since the severed pieces of Senketsu should not be able to reattach themselves. Heck, Senketsu should be technically dead at the time Nui chopped him to pieces.

Well, you ought to remember about a few things there. First, there's nothing explicitly said about how exactly are the scissors hurting the life fibres, so until revealed otherwise it might be something as simple as being able to cut anything and stopping it from regenerating in that instant moment for as long as it is made with life fibres; that would explain why only the core piece of Senketsu was still moving and why it could not just fix itself then but had to be fixed by Ryuko. Second, we don't see how Ryuko fixed Senketsu, and she seemed to have some spare fragments of goku uniforms which do contain life fibres. And third, Ragyo always has life fibres inside of her and can manipulate them directly, so for all we know she just might be able to fix herself like that.Granted, it might be that the studio went a bit too far with those scenes and we are just supposed to use MST3K Mantra there, but the whole thing is ambiguous enough now that we can't rule out the stuff I mentioned.

He was only cut up with half of the scissors. It takes two blades made of ultra-hardened life fibers (such as the complete scissors or the twin Bakuzan blades) cutting them at the same time to fully prevent life fibers from healing.

That. The same explains Ragyo. Strong enough life fibers can regenerate as long as they're only cut from one side (which is exactly why the scissors were created).

Life Fibers and hybrids

If Life Fibres are a parasitic organism that has ability-enhancing powers, how is it that Ryuko and Ragyo are able to wear and use them? That's somewhat akin to a tapeworm infesting a larger tapeworm.

Not exactly sure what confuses you. In their case its like a heavily modified cyborg wearing a power armour. Sure he is mechanical on the inside already but the power armour itself provides an extra edge in battle with extra muscle power and heavier armour plating. Those two are actually still Mostly human but heavily enhanced by the life fiber. They are hybrids not pure life fiber creatures.

In addition, there have been cases discovered of parasites with parasites inside of them. The food chain works in unusual ways sometimes.

Nui's eye

If Nui is a Life Fibre being straight from the source and is able to regenerate even after ripping her own heart out, then what's stopping her from regenerating her eye?

The fact that it was cut with a blade that neutralizes Life Fibers?

Didn't stop her from healing that chest wound of hers.

Isshin was using the completed Rending Scissors at that time. Ryuko was using only her half when she stabbed her.

My interpretation is that the Life Fiber regen comes in two forms; if you used something like Bakuzan to make a cut, the Life Fibers would just fuse back together. But if you use the Rending Scissors, the Life Fibers would be unable to fuse back together, but one could use more Life Fibers to sew whatever has been cut (eg a Kamui) back together. As for Nui's eye I think it wasn't just cut, but rather torn out, meaning Nui would have to get the eye and 'sew' it back into her head, instead of just 'sewing' it back together. She didn't have the time to do that, though.

Electric shock

So why exactly in episode 20 did Mako suddenly feel some sort of electric shock out of nowhere?

Static electricity? She Was rubbing Senketsu on Ryuko's robe after all.

Mind stitching

If Ragyo can control the minds of others via her Life Fibers, then what is stopping her from taking control of the Elite Four, Satsuki, Nudist Beach and other enemy threats that stand in her way?

She might simply be unable to do that to people in transformed life fibre clothes. The one-star mooks don't have any transformations so they wouldn't be resistant at all, and so far every time Ryuko happened to be controlled she wasn't wearing a transformed Senketsu.

If such was the case, she still could have taken control of them out of their Goku Uniforms since the Elite Four no longer don them and Nudist Beach members being very vulnerable. Also, she practically mopped the floor with Satsuki without a Life Fiber-enhanced uniform and ripped Junketsu off her. Ragyo could have at least used Life Fibers to keep Satsuki under control so she at least had a puppet and one less enemy to worry about.

The only time they're close enough to her is during the rebellion at Honnouji in episode 18, when they're in their uniforms. The rest of the time, they're far away with the closest being when they rescue Satsuki and at that point, it was obvious that she could care less about them and was more focused on capturing Ryuko.

We don't know how long Ragyo can keep the Mind Stitching up, for all we know it may continuously drain energy out of her to have people Stitched for long periods of time. Also of note is the fact that Ragyo is very arrogant and sadistic - it is entirely possible that she wanted Satsuki fully conscious as she tortured her as a form of revenge for her betrayal.

Timeline of Ryuko's birth

Something I can't make sense of: So Satsuki is a year older than Ryuko. Ryuko was abandoned when she wasn't even a year old. Soichiro took her and escaped with both of them presumed dead. When did he take the time to talk to a five year old Satsuki about Junketsu?

My guess is that he didn't run away initially. He either raised little Ryuko in secret or gave her to someone to look after her, Kinue maybe?

Kidnapping Mako and spirit

Upon re-watching the series there was this one thing that struck me as annoying and incomprehensible. After Fukurouda lets Ryuko escape and takes Mako hostage to draw our hero out, Sanageyama compliments him on his spirit. This is what I don't understand, what is there to compliment? He took a defenceless girl hostage in order to draw out another girl, whom he almost beat to death before. As far as they know Ryuko is no threat and will get killed by Fukuroda as soon as she appears. Why did he compliment Fukuroda? Was there something I missed? Or an aspect of Japanese culture I don't understand?

The fact that Fukurouda still went all-out and used Mako to bait Ryuuko instead of just lazing around and waiting for her to come back on her own, maybe?

Possible, but then again he said it himself. He fails again and his uniform gets taken away so he didn't have much of a choice.

In the past, Sanageyama was a leader of a group of delinquents. He might be complimenting the guy for trying to force a confrontation in this particular place, the same way one thug would compliment another for using a hostage to bait someone. It's just what happens, it doesn't have to feel comprehensible to every one of us.

Nui's parentage

So with the reveal that Nui also being a human-life fiber hybrid, could it be that she and Ryuko are not just "soul sisters" but actual sisters too? Given that Ragyo mentioned that she used her genes as a basis for experimenting on her children to see if any of them can be like her, it should be possible that Nui is a divergent experiment to see whether an infant raised inside an artificial womb made of life fibers from the Primodial Life Fiber would produce a human-life fiber hybrid.

It's entirely possible, but I think we've had enough plot twists (which, in my opinion, aren't really plot twists at all) such as Satsuki actually being against Ragyo and COVERS, Ryuuko actually being Ragyo's daughter, Nui and Ryuuko being human-life fiber hybrids, and Ryuuko and Satsuki switching Godrobes.

I don't see how this is a Headsacratcher, plus it the implication should be obvious to anyone who paid attention to the flashback sequences. Ragyo explicitly states that she believes it is her genetics and physiology that grants her her tolerance to Life Fiber hosting, and certainly she gives the vibe that she feels only her and her progeny should be augmented by life fibers and elevated above normal humans. Satsuki was experimented on when she was one year old, when she failed Ryuuko was put through the same experience at what was implied to be just weeks after her birth, and initially appeared to be yet another failure. So the next step following this line of logic would have to be actually incubating a baby in life fibers, which is where Nui comes from. So yes, Nui is a Life Fiber infused human that was bonded as a zygote/fetus and given the emphasis Ragyo puts on specifically her genes during her experiments more than likely Nui is her daughter as well, though there is room to doubt if Soichiro "contributed" to this experiment after the Ryuuuko incident, but she is so (literally) disconnected from her that they can't bring themselves to view each other as family. Nui being related to Ryuuko wouldn't be much of a twist, as the more important part of the reveal was explaining the source of Nui's power.

Considering that Nui's body rejects all other life fibres, the reverse could be true. They created Nui first and then Ragyo deemed her unsuitable, coming to the conclusion that it was her genes and physiology that was necessary to create suitable host. Nui might have been kept as a scientific control to provide a baseline comparison.

Switch

Why is Junketsu's "switch" located on the upper left arm? Does it have something to do with blood vessels located on the left arm, kind of like Senketsu's glove that covers the wrist (which is a popular place to cut yourself if you intend to draw a lot of blood)?

I'm not sure Ryuko or Satsuki's switches actually have any meaning besides just drawing blood to feed their Kamui.

Takarada's parents

I've been curious about Takarada's parents for a while. He seems to be more or less the same age as Satsuki but unlike her he seems to have full control over his conglomerate's resources. If his parents were still around they would definitely want to know Why he is supporting Nudist Beach or using company's money and resources. Are there any information about them? Are they even still alive? Perhaps Ragyo had them secretly assassinated in hopes of destroying the conglomerate but Kaneo survived and now opposes her?

We know nothing, most likely because it wasn't really important and thus we are free to speculate whatever we want.

He's competing with REVOCS. They each have 50% control of the country. Anything that harms them, advances his interests.

Cut in half

If Ryuko blocked Ragyo from cutting her in half then why did she get cut in half anyways?

She wasn't necessarily cut. If you look at the frames when she's falling in front of Mako, the point of bisection is actually jagged and torn. Ryuko let Ragyo do some cutting, but left enough area left so that she could finish the cut herself by pulling her own body in half. This is shown in freeze-frames, where she isn't cut, but instead has torn flesh. So yeah, that looks painful.

Inumuta explains earlier that the reason Ryuko was able to keep Nui from re-attaching her arms was because the life fibers were cut from both sides, so if Ryuko deflected one of the blades, then they wouldn't have been cut from both sides and she would be able to put herself back together.

Goku uniforms for everyone

Why has nobody thought to make Goku uniforms for the world over? In fact why even try enveloping the world in life fibers when you can form a symbiotic relationship and even inhabit worlds the life fibers couldn't invade?

You need access to life fibres for that. And the only people who do have access are Ragyo and Satsuki (and Isshin in the past) as well as those who are subservient to them and would not be able to do anything of this sort.

Well sure, but you're telling me literally nobody who had any sort of influence or within earshot of such people thought "Hey, we can use these to further societal progress and expand their domain?" I mean, the idea of superpowers just for wearing aliens, and in the worst case scenario, offering a few ounces of blood for even more really can't be that hard to sell. Win-win situation if you ask me.

Once again, you need access to life fibres for that. And, once again, only Ryuko and Satsuki and earlier on Isshin have (or in Isshin's case, had) access to them. That means getting it from one of them. Ragyo wouldn't give them to you unless you are Satsuki, Satsuki wouldn't give them to you because doing that would alert Ragyo to the fact that she is not loyal to her, and Isshin wouldn't give them to you because he knew how dangerous they were; and after Satsuki stopped pretending to be on Ragyo's side she no longer had access to the life fibres (so she couldn't give them to anyone) until the time after she fought Junketsu-wearing Ryuko, at which point anything more elaborate than "make uniforms, face against Ragyo" was a no-go. So what I am telling you is that you should stop for a moment and think because the existence of your headscratcher appears to be a headscratcher in itself due to life fibres' infinitesimal availability as a resource for anyone but a few chosen people.

We're going around in circles here. I'm saying that I find it odd that neither Ragyo, Satsuki, Nui, Rei, or even anyone they listen to (As few people as that may represent) thought to bring this up if for literally no other reason than to make sure the life fibers expand and reproduce more quickly. I mean, this is Ragyo's stated goal. She wants them to envelope the world, then blow it up so they spread throughout space. Would telling her, or any of the people she has any meaningful contact with (to pass on the message, mind you) be that hard? Given the setting, and her stated goal, I don't see why she wouldn't even consider something like that.

Because ultimately they want to eat us. They didn't want a symbiotic relationship, it was just out of necessity like rationing your food. It actually is mentioned at one point that Revocs brand clothing does increase your abilities, which lead people to steal them for it. This all fits into Ragyo's Assimilation Plot anyway because ultimately we are just pigs being fattened up for eating.

Paralyzed

In the last episode, why were Ryuko and Senketsu paralyzed by the Absolute Submission field if their hybrid nature made them immune? What changed to let them move and Senketsu talk to regular humans?

It looks like it was a matter of them realizing that they could. It worked on them until they thought otherwise. Since it was explicitly a psychological attack, it makes sense that Your Mind Makes It Real.

It seems like one of the effects of the Absolute Submission was to cancel life-fiber based transformations. This applies even to Ryuko and Senketsu when they Synchronize. The causing life fibers to cower in fear, what paralyzed most everyone, is another, probably separate effect (possibly caused by the first). By talking with Satsuki, Senketsu understands he isn't completely life-fiber, thus doesn't have to stay frozen, and realizes he can move and act on his own. Ryuko could still function, because all her life fibers are inside, where the light doesn't touch, so she wouldn't even notice the effect it had on Life Fiber.

Ragyo's plans

It's just me or Ragyo's plans doesn't have any friggin' sense? Since those plans involve her own death by having the Earth destroyed by the Life Fibers. Not only dying along with the planet will render any plan she had in mind void, the Life Fibers could do it by themselves without Ragyo's intervention. The only explanation I could get of all this is possibly the Life Fibers are being manipulated by Ragyo for her own plans and they didn't have any plans for themselves until Ragyo decided to use/hijack them for destroy the Earth. This is implied at the end when Ryuko ordered them to stop and they obey her without trying to attack her. Since she is already powerful enough, it would have more sense if Ragyo used the power of the Life Fibers for becoming a god-like supreme being and trying to rule the Earth/the Universe, rather than helping an alien race on killing her and the entire mankind without any kind of reward at the end.

The key issue here is your assumption that Ragyo is rational. She isn't, it's plainly obvious that she is heavily brainwashed or just plain believe that Life Fibers are the supreme beings and she should serve them. She is pretty much a religious fanatic who is willing to die for their cause. We know very little of Ragyo before she awakened the Life Fibers but considering how her family was protecting them for who knows how long she was probably brainwashed into serving them since young age. When she awakened them and presumably got infested and brainwashed she stopped caring about humans altogether. Note the bit where Ryuko was brainwashed by Junketsu, she herself said that humans exist only to serve clothing and that wearing Junketsu feels incredible. Long story short, those who serve Life Fibers are brainwashed by them, like cult members and stop caring about their own survival.

The way she treats Satsuki stepping on the Original Life Fiber is a dead giveaway that she sees Life Fibers as a deity.

One possible interpretation is that Ragyo is a rather extreme case of the The Fatalist: Her introduction has her discuss how any animal that rejects their instinct is doomed to die shortly after. At the time, this seems just like more cryptic musings but we're later told that Life-fibers guided our evolution and the development of our instincts in order to aid their final ascension. Our instinct then is something naturally self-destructive and one way or another, Humanity is going to die out in Ragyo's view; it is more fitting that we fulfill our purpose and meet this end with dignity. This explains a lot of her own behavior which seems to eschew inhibition, up to what she does to her own daughter(s). From her point of view; We're doomed if we don't follow our instincts, we're doomed if we do, so we might as well follow our instincts and live well along the way. La vie est drôle. This contrasts with Satsuki's more disciplined view; both see humanity as pigs in human clothing, but where Satsuki hopes to transcend this with discipline and strict control, Ragyo only hopes to live according to her natural instincts while recognizing the superiority of Fibers.

Human modesty

Since the Life Fibers were responsible for human modesty in the first place, why didn't humanity remain naked after their destruction?

Because it's the 21th century and staying naked isn't a social option anymore. It was just the Life Fibers that were the problem, not the normal clothes. It's like asking why do people still eat cow flesh after the Mad Cow craze a couple years ago.

That, and clothes still serve purposes after that; they provide protection, ability to change one's appearance, and most importantly, pockets. Also, after years of being basically bred to be modest, modesty isn't going to just disappear instantaneously.

Nudist Beach mechas

Who the heck was in charge of designing the Nudist Beach Mechas? Outside of the fact that they provide little in the way of protection for the pilot and put them in ripe position for an Ass Shove, piloting a mech from a lying-on-your-face position would be crazy uncomfortable. You'd have to constantly tilt your head up just to see straight ahead, and the horizontal orientation just makes the whole setup horribly unintuitive.

The OVA mentions that Aikuro designed them that way because he thought it was cool. Everyone else seems to disagree with him, though. The Elite Four had custom ones made while they were working for Nudist Beach, but they never got used because the Elite Four thought they were ridiculous, and Tsumugu got mad at Aikuro when he discovered the truth.

Sinking the island

Why did they sink the island Honoji Academy was on...where most of them Live?

The OVA answers this question.

The glove

When Senketsu is cut to pieces, he can't be put together since they're missing the glove. The glove was an accessory. Ryuko had already worn Senketsu before that. If they don't have it, it just means that Ryuko will have to find another way to get blood on her uniform.

The issue was that after Ryuuko abandoned her embarrassment of wearing Senketsu in episode 3 the amount of power circulating through her increased greatly. While she could handle the small amount of power before episode 3, after that it was impossible.

Senketsu is constantly evolving and changing. Clearly he incorporated the glove into himself, hiding the most crucial elements of his being from people like Nui and Inumuta in the one place no one would expect to find it, in the glove Ryuko didn't wear in episode 1.

The glove may have been part of Senketsu all along. Ryuko got it from Mikisugi, who was part of Nudist Beach along with Isshin. He might have given the glove to Mikisugi for safekeeping, so that if REVOCS or a burglar got ahold of Senketsu, they couldn't use his full power.

Rewatching the second episode, if you watch carefully you'll notice that Mikisugi pulled the glove out of Senketsu's sleeve. How it was in there without Ryuko noticing it is anyone's guess, but it's not the like series needs to explain everything. Much like it's predecessor, it's the kind of series where you just roll with it.

Because as a drum major, she likely has an affinity for music played with traditional European instruments.

Augh, the pun! It burns!

Anti-life fiber weapons

If Satsuki's main objective was to defeat the life fibers, why didn't she put research into developing anti-life fiber weapons similar to Bakuzan or Nudist Beach's tailor gloves and daggers?

Remind me please just How Effective exactly was that stuff against Life Fiber clothing? Satsuki used that stuff more as back-up equipment like during her revolt but that stuff was so underpowered and ineffective that it was all but useless. Besides Satsuki had access to unlimited amounts of Life Fibers so why should she bother with inferior equipment?

Additionally, Ragyo basically owns the school, so everything Satsuki does has to be under the pretense of helping her mother's plans. Bakuzan could be excused as Satsuki just wanting a really sharp sword, but if she was caught making anything specifically to combat life fibers, her plot would be exposed.

Ragyo's life fibers

If life fibers have to be implanted at a very young age to not kill the host, how does Ragyo have them in her body? If she had them implanted by her own parents, she would have known about the age limit, so why did she wait so long with Satsuki?

I think that depends on circumstance. I mean, odds are she may not have had them implanted in her body at a young age, rather, when she first experimented with them, she might have done so more than once and continued doing so, until it finally worked and probably did that slowly. On the note of Satsuki, well, she probably didn't know that initially, until she tried it and found it wouldn't work because Sats was one, then again, she probably didn't think to try again, not that we see, so she figured it would work on a newborn (the which she was pregnant with for about five or six months at the time) and, as heinous as it was, it worked, as can be seen. Maybe for a child, something would work better if the child was a newborn (i.e why most conjoined twins are separated almost after birth) , rather than nearly or already walking, as is a general rule of them for most babies, which is to say, the further along, the less it might be effective/successful, ergo it's better to do a procedure on a newborn because they are young enough where healing and growing accustomed bodily changes will be the fastest, whereas for a year old would be less so or, to put it simply, the younger they are, the better, as far as that knowledge goes. It's complicated, to say the least.

Implanting life fibers inside the body normally destroys the nervous system, as demonstrated by the mouse in the Nudist Beach video. Ragyo couldn't have tried it a second time, because she would have died the first time.

Emphasis on normally, thus there would have had to be exceptions, as "normally" doesn't mean always, and, by that, rare ones, apparently. I mean, Ryuu had them implanted in her body as a baby and they would have destroyed her nervous system, if that had always been the case. Then again, a baby is much bigger than a mouse, thus it would have that effect, and Ragyo probably did have them implanted in her when she was young, though that would be unlikely as the life fibers' existence was discovered about twenty years ago, two years before Sats was born, either way, we don't really get her background besides her discovery of said life fibers and what she did with them. If memory serves, the reason as to why Ryuuko was discarded in the first place is because her mother thought she died from said experiments like the mouse in Nudist Beach and she only tried it once in that case. If anything, she might have become fused with them when she first made contact with them those twenty years ago.

Cutting the Shackle Regalia

What exactly stops the scissor blade from cutting right through the cloth bandages over the Shackle Regalia? The scissor blade is supposed to be one of the few things sharp enough to cut life fibers, which in turn are tougher than just about any mundane material. The Crunchyroll subs have Ira mention "special powers" reinforcing them, but that just sounds like a hand wave. If it's possible to layer impenetrable fabric over life fibers, then every uniform and kamui would have such a layer and be completely invulnerable.

There's probably so many layers and they are packed so densely that even an Absurdly Sharp Blade cannot cleave through more than a few at a time. The force of the blow gets completely stifled trying to cut through so much fabric. Try to tear a hole in one sheet of paper, that's easy. Now try to tear a hole in a big stack of sheets, and you'll see how difficult that is. They can't do that with every uniform because in order to achieve invulnerability, the uniform needs to be so bulky that the wearer can barely move.

Failed Sen-i Shoshitsu

How/why did Ryuko fail to shred Nonon's uniform between her Presto and Da Capo modes? She appeared to pull off a successful Sen-i-Soshitsu, and Nonon was sent flying, which implied the scissor blade made contact, but somehow her uniform stayed intact.

Maybe Nonon's uniform has two layers, the upper of which is used for Presto and the lower for Da Capo, with the upper layer eating up the impact and allowing the lower layer to remain intact.

'Da Capo' literally means 'from the beginning'. It's a music reference; the original was finished, so 'let's take it from the top'.

Original Life Fiber

How does the Original Life Fiber work? It's supposed to be a space parasite that feeds off organisms and then, allegedly, covers and blows up the planet, right? Then why did it only attach itself to only humans? We're told it was because our brains are more advanced, but why would it care about that? Shouldn't it have attached itself to every creature or at least large creatures that are full of blood? And why did it go into stasis after helping humankind evolve? And how would it have blown up the world without Ragyo? If it wasn't for her and her family the Life Fiber would never had done anything!

The Original Life Fiber infests worlds by infiltrating its inhabitants' clothes. To do that, it needs the world's dominant race to evolve enough to wear clothes. Hence, it manipulated humans to evolve into their modern form. Having more than one sentient race on the planet could be counterproductive, if they depopulated each other by waging war for control of the planet. Ragyo's plan and Shinra Koketsu were probably the OLF's doing; I imagine the final stage of each OLF's plan is to manipulate the host race into building a giant kamui to cover and explode the planet. As for why it went dormant, this is probably pure headcanon, but I suspect humanity evolved and reproduced faster than the OLF could infest their clothes, and it feared humans out of its control would find the OLF and destroy it, so it went "underground" to wait for a more opportune time.

So basically what you're saying is that the life cycle of a Life Fiber is to come to a planet, find the most mentally advanced species and help it evolve while instilling an attachment to clothing in them, then go into hiding for hundreds of thousands of years in hopes that one day a family of maniac fashion designers with a monopoly on the clothing industry or something similar finds it and somehow figures out what it is and decides to help it blow up the planet. Because that the only way the Life Fiber's plan works seeing that only the Revocs Corporation was down with the plan to blow up the planet while everyone else thought it was complete lunacy.

I'm guessing there was some sort of mind control involved with Ragyo. She's part life fiber, and shares their values.

What (s)he said. The OLF can manipulate minds and influence people to carry out its will. Also keep in mind, the OLF is basically a planetary virus. It doesn't need to successfully infect every single host, because every successful infection creates millions or billions of new viruses. As Ragyo said, Earth may not have seen the last of it.

Pervert father

Episode 2: Mako's father Barazo was clearly, ummm, enjoying Ryuko's company while she was unconscious. Naturally, Ryuko beats him up for that, but when Mako tells that he is her father, Ryuko immediately apologizes him. This feels pretty wrong to me... but is this just Values Dissonance between Japanese and Western viewers?

To some degree, it is Values Dissonance, rather, she could have been apologizing because she assumed wrong, as some people tend to, at the same time, it could be possible that to her that is a normal social interaction, seeing as to how she's grown up.

I took it as Ryuko woke up to pervert Man and then Mako told her he was her Dad and he fixed her up. Ryuko I think assumed that she was mistaken about the Dad until later occurrences were it has become a pattern that she beats them up.

No-Late Day

Just how the hell does anyone survive No-Late Day? If you don't make it through this hellish miles-long obstacle course, you're expelled, and even if you do take on the obstacle course, there's a big chance you would die. And this is done once a semester. How are there any No-Star students left at all?

Some of the No-Stars may have gotten there before the challenge began and, yes, there will some, as seen in the classroom scene

Honnouji Academy is an elite school, and even their no-star students are a cut above ordinary high-schoolers. Also, it's an anime and stuff that would be lethal in real life can just cause amusing minor burns and scratches.

Another possibility is that No-Late Day is not normally nearly this grueling, but because Maiko designed the traps and coveted Senketsu, she built this semester's obstacle course extra-tough to try to eliminate Ryuko. That being said, yes, we see plenty of No-Star students make it through this one—I suspect that if the Mankanshoku guys can make it all the way, albeit with an alternate path (though we do see that taking alternate paths is even more dangerous), then this is likely a city so full of badasses that such an obstacle course is not as challenging as it looks.

Absolute Submission field

The Rending Scissors fail at the last minute due to the Absolute Submission field manipulating them. Ryuko then absorbs the field and uses it to end Ragyo's plan once and for all. That field was powered by Hououmaru, and was deactivated when she was ejected from Shinra Koketsu, as we saw then the three-star uniforms reactivated. So how was it available for either purpose?

It seems like Absolute Submission still works without a human sacrifice, just less effective. Maybe it's strong enough to keep affecting Life Fibers, just not the humans wearing them.

College

OVA question: Why would Inumuta go to college to study I.T.? He's already hacked into the networks of three different schools, among numerous other accomplishments, so he should easily be able to get a job right out of high school. And how does Iori intend to keep researching life fibers, when they effectively don't exist anymore outside of Ryuko's body?

This world takes everything up to eleven. Maybe there are super-hacker schools run by geniuses even better than Inumuta. As for Life Fibres there may be some around given that Rei was able to use them to make the dark Elite Four, and it makes sense to study them given the risk they may return some day.

Inumuta may need certification for certain jobs he wants, and ever since he joined up with Satsuki, he's been doing everything legit. Another possibility is that Inumuta was and still is directionless in life, and going to college may help him make up his mind.

Rending Scissors in OVA

OVA question: How do the Rending Scissors still exist? The Original Life Fiber that powered them is gone, and they've been floating in space, far from any human bodies to draw energy from. By the logic of episode 24, they should be dead, but they survive orbital re-entry and are alive enough to transform.

Where was it stated the Rending Scissors need to draw on human energy to exist? Senketsu existed without Ryuko for several years, and survived the Original Life Fiber's death just fine.

At the end of episode 24, Mikisugi states that because the OLF is dead and Ryuko ordered them to release their captured humans, the remaining life fibers will die out. The empty COVERS, and Senketsu and Junketsu when they weren't being worn, lived on energy distributed by the OLF. After its destruction, the full COVERS and kamui drew energy from their wearers, and Senketsu was able to act independently for a few minutes, but it doesn't make sense that the scissors could survive being isolated from both energy sources for so long.

The Scissors and by extension Bakuzan and the needle swords Ragyo was using might not be necessarily alive. Life Fiber clothing is obviously alive and requires energy source to survive but the hardened life fibers might not need that. They are like weapons made of dead animals' parts like bone or horns.

Didn't Ryuko absorb the Primordial Life Fiber. Couldn't she have used the Life Fibers from that to reactivate the Rending Scissors?

Captured in enclosed areas

When the clothing captured everybody in the world and dragged them up into space, what happened to people in enclosed areas, like in buildings or in vehicles? In addition, it looks like the Life Fibers just dropped the humans, stark naked, through the atmosphere when given the order by Ryuko. How did everybody survive that?

Satsuki after the climax

So what happened to Satsuki in the end? Honnoji Academy and the Revoc corporation are gone, her assets and accounts were probably all frozen by the government and someone has to answer to the world for Ragyo's crimes. I mean, I don't expect her to be arrested or anything but exactly what prospects are left to her?

From the looks of things in the end credits, Satsuki losing everything the Kiryuin family and Honnoji Academy had to offer were the best things to ever happen to the lady. Now she doesn't have to be the cold, ruthless daughter of a mad alien cultist, she can relax and just be a normal pre-college girl, spending time with her little sister and the handful of true, loving friends she's had by her side. Satsuki Kiryuin is the richest young woman in Japan, and she doesn't need a corporation to be so.

Also, who's saying her assets and accounts were seized? If she had accounts in her name (likely because if anything, Satsuki is smart) anything involved with Ragyo's wouldn't affect her.

No stars and No Late Day

Why do any of the no star students care about getting to school on No Late Day? They're already at the bottom of the heap so getting expelled won't affect their lives. In fact, their lives would probably improve since they won't have to deal with Satsuki's insane school policies anymore.

Honnouji Academy existed solely as a boot camp. This essentially means if you aren't attending the school, you have no reason to be on the island at all. Thus, expulsion would likely mean deportation from the island as well, which is why Maiko reacted so severely when Gamagori told her she was expelled.

Satsuki knowing Mako's name

In episode 12, Mako expresses surprise that Satsuki knew her name. However, in episode 7, Satsuki had addressed Mako by name several times during her tenure as Fight Club President and fight with Ryuko, and it's also not unreasonable to assume that Satsuki would be spying on Ryuko's life outside of school. (It may have been intended more as an example of being surprised that Satsuki was acknowledging her existence after she fell back to No-Star Rank, however.)

Mako is not the most attentive person in the world, and her mind was elsewhere at the moment, as well.

I think Mako is more shocked that the the great Lady Satsuki would remember her name.

Mind Stitching the Elite Four

Why doesn't Ragyo ever try to brainwash the Elite Four with her Life Fiber strands? They're powerful, but still normal humans.

Who knows? Maybe she didn't think of it, or they weren't close enough, or it didn't work because they were using their transformed uniforms at the time. Any one of those is possible.

The Elite Four have the most life fiber tolerance, second only to Kamui users. Most probably, it would take quite a lot of effort to ensnare them, especially since they are a lot less volatile and collected than Ryuko.

Shingantsu and Tengantsu

According to Satsuki, the Shingantsu completely outclasses the Tengantsu. This should make the latter irrelevant. So why does Sanageyama unsealing his eyes count as a power-up?

Because now he has both at the same time. He has the enhanced hearing/smell/touch/taste from his training, along with his vision.

Satsuki's plans

When Satsuki reveals Ragyo as the true enemy of her and Nudist Beach alike, the latter is understandably puzzled. They ask Satsuki why she didn't just tell them right off the bat that this was the case, instead of spending so much time fighting each other. Satsuki's explanation is simply "If you can't compete with us, you won't stand a chance against Ragyo." I'm sorry, but how does that make any sense? Even if NB turned out to be useless for Satsuki, why waste all the time and resources fighting them that could be better spent fighting Ragyo? There's nothing to be gained from it, and it's not like having those extra numbers on your side could possibly hurt. There is the vague possibility that Ragyo could possess their minds and result in more enemies to fight, but simply explaining that danger would, again, be far more efficient. Honestly, to me, this explanation felt like the desperate scrambling of someone who'd written themselves into a corner.

The whole "testing you to see if you were powerful enough to fight Ragyo" is really only half of the coin. Remember that Satsuki is under the command of REVOCS. She needs their resources, information and complete trust if she is going to fight them. If she allows the Nudist Beach Resistance to survive then Ragyo and Nui are going to see her as either A) incompetent or B) a traitor. In her mind, allying with Nudist Beach simply isn't worth the risk, considering it could cause the whole plan to fall apart.

Also it was added by Inumuta that only a few people knew about the plan to rebel her closes friends. Satsuki didn't trust Nudist Beach so she didn't share her deepest secrets.

Original Life Fiber's Location

Where did Raygo find the Original Life Fiber? That it affected all of human evolution would imply it landed and was found in Africa somewhere, but it's also pretty big so it must have been hard to move. Did she just have the REVOCS building constructed around it? For that matter how did Raygo find the Original Life Fiber? What was she doing that caused her to discover it?

Everyone being naked while fighting the COVERS

After the first attempt to fight Ragyo, when everyone goes into hiding, why are they all naked? Yes, their goku uniforms were destroyed by attrition, but they could have just as easily worn normal clothes. The whole point of the academy was that it'd build up resistance to life fiber mind domination, and if they were strong enough to safely wear their goku uniforms later, they could definitely manage normal clothes. The only reason I can think of is Rule of Funny.

You have to remember that most normal clothing is made by Revocs, and it was a major part of Raygo's plan to have everyone wear the clothing with trace amounts of life fibers in it to encase them in cocoons... It's also possible that the Nudist Beach uniforms were just the only things they could find.

Uzu Sanageyama's eyes

How exactly does he get his eyes back in the last episodes? Did the stitching on his eyes just wear off? Did he get it undone? Were they the result of his regalia, or had he been faking his blindness for a while?

The key part is that they were "sewed", so it's not that absurd for him to regain it by just asking Iori to unsew it.

Community

Tropes HQ

TVTropes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available from thestaff@tvtropes.org. Privacy Policy